Friday, November 14, 2008

Self-Service Society

Japanese vending machines are as ubiquitous as sheep in Australia, only without the practical benefits to lonely, single males. There are reckoned to be about 5.5 million of them in the country - one for every twenty-five people - selling everything from flowers to fishing bait, cigarettes and beer to the frankly unforgettable bread in a can (sadly, the machines dispensing soiled underwear have disappeared from the seedier corners of Tokyo).

Although this seems to suggest that number might be a bit of an underestimate.